WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

On This Day in HISTORY

1 BC – The day after Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty dies without an heir, Wang Mang seizes power and is declared marshal of state. The Han Dynasty is restored when he is overthrown in 23 AD

1384 – Hongwu Emperor Dong of the Ming Dynasty hears a couple’s case who tore paper money bills fighting over them (equal to destroying stamped government documents, in Chinese law punished by one hundred floggings), but he pardons them

1513 – Battle of the Spurs: English and Holy Roman Empire troops under Henry VIII and Maximilian I surprise and rout the French cavalry at Enguinegatte in France, and Henry VIII continues his siege of Thérouanne

1637 – Emilie Juliane, Countess of Barby-Mühlingen born, most prolific German hymn female writer, with approximately 600 hymns attributed to her

1813 – Sarah Porter born, American educator, founder of Miss Porter’s School, a private girl’s college preparatory school; she acquired her education through private tutoring by Yale professors, and her school offers an expansive curriculum, including the sciences

Portrait of William Morris Hunt by Helen Knowlton, 1880

1836 – Virginia Thrall Smith born, American social and charity worker, City Missionary Society member, established Connecticut’s first free kindergarten; elected to the Connecticut State Board of Charities, started the Connecticut Children’s Aid Society, founder of a children’s home that became the Newington Children’s Hospital

1842 – U.S. government took over mail delivery in NYC from the city dispatch post.

1865 – Mary Gilmore born, Australian writer, journalist, poet, labor movement activist, and crusader for the disadvantaged; inaugural editor of the women’s section of The Australian Worker (1908-1931), advocating for women’s suffrage, pensions for the elderly and invalids, and just treatment of the Aboriginal people. During this time she also wrote for The Bulletin and The Sydney Morning Herald. Her first volume of poetry was published in 1910, which was followed by 20 additional collections; her best known poem is “No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest” a morale booster during WWII. She was appointed Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1937 for her contributions to literature. By the late 1940s, she was the doyenne of the Sydney literati, and in the 1950s and 60s became a well-known personality on radio and television. At 87, she began writing “Arrows,” a column for The Tribune, the Australian Communist Party’s newspaper (1952-1963), but never joined the party. When Dame Mary died at age 97, she was accorded a state funeral, one of the few writers to be so honored. Her likeness has been featured on the Australian ten-dollar note since 1993

1880 – Auguste Rodin commissioned to sculpt a large doorway for Musée des Arts Décoratifs. Inspired by Dante, he worked on the ‘Gates of Hell’ for the next 37 years

detail of upper portion, Gates of Hell, by Auguste Rodin

1885 – LaMarcus Adna Thompson patented a wooden roller coaster *, but “Russian Mountains” had been built since the 17th century, beginning near Saint Petersburg, out of ice with wooden supports which were 70 to 80 feet high with a 50◦ drop.

1888 – T.E. Lawrence born, British archaeologist, military officer, and writer, better known as “Lawrence of Arabia”

1894 – George Meany born, American labor leader; president of the AFL-CIO (1955-79)

1902 – Georgette Heyer born, British novelist, detective fiction and historical romance, often set in the Regency period. Her description of Battle of Waterloo in An Infamous Army was so definitive, military history instructors at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst have used it in their classes

1900 – Ida A. Browne born, Australian geologist and palaeontologist; she graduated from the University of Sydney with Honors in 1922, and won the University medal in geology. She then worked as a demonstrator in geology and petrology at the University (1922-1927), researching the minerals and geology of New South Wales. A Linnean-Macleay Fellowship (1927-1931) enabled her to extend her research, producing extensive mapping of the region, and also paid for travels overseas to research facilities and conferences. In 1932, she was the second woman at the University of Sydney to earn a doctorate in Geology, but was unable to find work in her field; no mining company would hire her because women were forbidden to work underground. She worked for the University again, and was promoted from demonstrator to Assistant Lecturer in palaeontology when Professor W.S. Dun became ill, putting aside her geology studies to gain extensive knowledge of palaeontology, and keep ahead of her students. She became a full lecturer in 1940. Moving from hard rock to soft rock studies, Brown’s research evolved into the study of Palaeozoic invertebrates, specifically brachiopods, and stratigraphical studies. She had exceptional mapping skills; her Taemas map continues to be used. She was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1945, but resigned from teaching in 1950 when she married to fellow geologist and colleague, William Rowan Browne. She then worked with him, often in the field, and continued publishing papers under her name. Browne was a member and first woman president of both of the Royal Society of New South Wales (president 1942-1950) and of the Linnean Society of New South Wales (president in 1953); member of the Australian National Research Council, and the Geological Society of Australia

1902 – Wallace Henry Thurman born, African-American editor, novelist and playwright, part of the Harlem Renaissance; The Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Life(1929)

1904 – Construction begins on New York’s Grand Central Station

1904 – Wendell Stanley born, American biochemist, 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (much of his research was later shown to be incorrect, but led to other discoveries)

1911 – E. F. Schumacher born in Germany, British economist; Chief Economic Advisor to the British National Coal Board (1950-1970); author of Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered

1913 – Tōhoku Imperial University of Japan becomes the first university in Japan to admit female students

1947 – Carol Moseley Braun born, American politician and diplomat; U.S. Ambassador to Samoa (2000-2001); U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand (1999-2001); the first African American woman U.S Senator, and first woman U.S. Senator from Illinois (1993-1999); considered centrist or conservative on economic issues, but liberal on social issues; strongly pro-choice, against the death penalty, and in favor of gun control; voted against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). In 1993, she convinced the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject the United Daughters of the Confederacy’s application for renewal of its design patent because the design contained a Confederate flag. With Senator Barbara Mikulski, in 1993 she broke the ban on women wearing pants on the Senate floor, which was finally amended in 1994 to allow pants on the floor as long they were worn with a jacket. Moseley Braun delivered the eulogy for Thurgood Marshall in 1993

1954 – First issue of Sports Illustrated is published

1960 – Cyprus is granted independence from Britain

1962 – De Jure Transfer Day * – French-controlled sectors of India agitated to become part of the independent Republic of India. In 1956, a treaty of cession was signed, but it was not ratified by the French parliament until 1962. On August 16, 1962, India and France exchanged instruments of ratification giving India full sovereignty over the former French territories

1966 – The Monkees first single “Last Train to Clarksville” is released

1966 – The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong, intending to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 people are arrested

1977 – Elvis Presley dies in Memphis TN

1984 – U.S. Jaycees vote to admit women as full members

1987 – Bon Jovi releases their album Slippery When Wet

1989 – A solar flare from the Sun creates a geomagnetic storm that affects micro chips, leading to a halt of all trading on Toronto’s stock market

1995 – Bermuda voters reject independence from Great Britain

1999 – Vladimir Putin confirmed as Russian prime minister

2001 – President George W Bush designates August 16 as National Airborne Day to honor the nation’s airborne forces. In 2009, the U.S. Senate recognized August 16th as National Airborne Day in Senate Resolution 235

2002 – The Africa Women’s Peace Train leaves Kampala, Uganda, to run through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana and finally to Johannesburg, South Africa, for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). Their goal is the end of the civil wars, corruption and genocide which are making their families unsafe

Nigerian woman and child

2010 – China eclipses Japan as the world’s second largest economy

2012 – The Ecuadorian Embassy in London grants political asylum to Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder, after his appeal to prevent extradition to Sweden over accusations of sexual assault and rape was denied by the British Supreme Court days earlier

2016 – Spike Lee’s documentary about Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans, When the Levees Broke, premieres in New Orleans LA

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About wordcloud9

Nona Blyth Cloud has lived and worked in the Los Angeles area for the past 45 years, spending much of that time commuting on the 405 Freeway. After Hollywood failed to appreciate her genius for acting and directing, she began a second career managing non-profits, from which she has retired.
Nona has now resumed writing whatever comes into her head, instead of reports and pleas for funding. She lives in a small house overrun by books with her wonderful husband and a bewildered Border Collie.